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Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Easter Eats

Our four-day long weekend was well-timed before our move in a week, allowing us plenty of time to do some deep cleaning, de-cluttering, and begin the packing process. It was also a good opportunity to do our fair share of eating. We started, naturally, with dessert.

Friday morning, the first thing I did was to put on a batch of hot cross buns. I had extra cross-mixture, so some became star buns. And one was a bit blobby. Because, hey, why not?

These were the very best hot cross buns I have ever made, ever. Ever. They were the perfect texture - soft, and just a little bit doughy, chewy, full of mixed fruit. We used the recipe from Vegan Bake Sale but only used mixed fruit instead of blueberries and whatever else the recipe calls for. We also left off the glaze, because we like our buns un-sticky and not too sweet.

Since we had the oven on, and we had 4 less-than-ideal apples in the crisper drawer, I also threw together an apple crumble. I used the recipe for Trailview Inn Apple Crumble, from the Girls' Night In chapter of Celebrate Vegan. There is an alarming amount of sugar in this recipe, but let me tell you - it is totally worth it. It sort of melts around the apples and mixes with their juice to create a delicious caramel sauce, topped with crispy delicious oat topping.

We ate ours cold, with hot coconut custard. And it was so good.

It wasn't all sweets, though. I had also been prepping for a few days, getting ready to make a big Ethiopian dinner. Using Mel's recipe for Injera, I finally opened by bag of teff flour. I fed my starter for 5 days, made my batter, and then started cooking the injera.

It was all full of promise, so when the first one didn't work, I didn't mind - the first pancake/crepe/flatbread is often a dud.

When they kept not working - sticking badly to the pan - I switched to pikelet-sized injeras, because at least they are easier to scrape from the pan without completely mangling. Let me be clear that I don't blame Mel's recipe - something about my batter, my climate, my cooking technique, my pan... it just didn't work. And the injera was a bit too sour for my liking. So I will try another recipe, if I can be bothered making this ever again.

By the time I was done with the injera, my feelings towards my Ethiopian feast were a bit battered. But, Andy noticed my grumpiness and came to take over. He made some mesir wat while I put together a shiro. This was our first time making shiro, again following Mel's recipe. This was really good, and I will make it again - with just a tad more chickpea flour, and more berbere (not Mel's recipe's fault - we ran out).

We did get a feast, in the end, and were too full to eat any of our desserts. Good thing we started with them!

This was all appropriate fuel for our cleaning spree, during which Nacho slept. And slept and slept. I've seriously never seen this cat so lethargic. Must be the change in weather, and the coming upheaval, that made her feel so lounge-y.

3 comments:

I'm so sad to hear that the injera didn't work out! :( It's interesting to hear that they were too sour, I still haven't eaten at an Ethiopian restaurant so I don't have any basis for comparison. I hope this experience hasn't scared you off injera making for good!

I like the idea of adding more chickpea flour to the shiro as we generally prefer thicker stews/curries to runny ones.

I'm sorry your Ethopian feast didn't go as smoothly as one might hope, but it looks like you still ended up with some great dishes - albeit with quite a lot of work and some disappointment in the making of them!

The desserts, at least, seem to have been disappointment free and I think I share your hot cross bun tastes exactly. I really like the look of your batch, including the blobby one :)

The Tropical Vegan

Vegan food and low-impact living in the Dry Tropics. Navigate using the tags, below, or by looking at the posts I've grouped under headings, across the top.

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